Musings on Buddhism and modern global culture, plus a few miscellaneous topics.

Sunday, 15 September 2013

Faces of the Buddha by Sandhya Regmi

Sandhya Regmi explains her fascination with painting faces of the Buddha in this article at Republica"Despite being a Hindu throughout my life, I have a very high regard for Buddha and Buddhism. I regard Buddhism as the highest pedestal of all other existing religions and philosophies in the world, because Buddha was always humble even after his ‘Enlightenment’.

He conveyed to his disciples and followers that he was no God, no teacher, no preacher, and asked them never to worship him as the Almighty, but rather to follow the path of ‘Dharma’ and ‘Sangha’.

I love this philosophy to the utmost. With the exception of Buddhism, other religions such as Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam believe in a Creator, the Almighty Lord positioned and crowned high in Heaven, and the concept of ‘Heaven’ and ‘Hell’.

In these religions, the human beings on Earth are behind a ‘Laxman Rekha’, a concrete and unbreakable barrier between ‘Man’ and ‘God’. In Buddhism, there is no such term as ‘Heaven’, ‘Hell’, ‘Man’ and ‘God’.

Everyone is equal. In sharp contrast to other religions, even an ordinary man can, in his course of life, attain ‘Enlightenment’ and become a Buddha.

My love, passion, respect, and dedication to Buddha and Buddhism inspired me to paint and spread the Buddha’s message through paintings entitled Faces of Buddha and Reincarnation of Buddha. My seventh solo painting exhibition was recently accomplished under the aforementioned themes at National Art Council, Babarmahal, Kathmandu.

While painting portraits of Buddha, I visualized the elements of Buddha in each individual. It is just a matter of degree. Given that Buddha is a union of a particular state of mind and of action, each individual is capable of adjusting the extent of Buddha in him/her.

Buddhism is a fusion of religion and philosophy. Buddhism is a religion to the extent that it is characterized by devotional practices and ritual devotion to the Buddha or Buddhahood. However, it neither involves belief in a creator God who has control over human destiny, nor seeks to define itself by reference to a religious belief. In addition, Buddhism has been described as a philosophy, a way of life, a code of ethics, and science of mind..." full article